Asus UX32A Zenbook 12.04 install somewhat successful gfx issues

I'm not new to Ubuntu, but my last HP laptop just kind of worked out of the box when I put Ubuntu on it.

I recently bought the Zenbook, and while I love the size, look, feel, everything, I've just spent about 12 hours actually getting ubuntu loaded.

If anyone wants a breakdown of how to get ubuntu on the machine as a sole boot, using the SSD as the "/" folder, and the HDD as the "/home" I can write that up tomorrow.

For now, I was wondering if someone can help me with trouble shooting my graphics problem.
To get past a black screen on boot, I was forced to add "nomodeset" into one of grubs line as suggested elsewhere in this forum. Unfortunately I think what that has done is force me to use some fairly basic drivers, and I can therefore not get Ubuntu to run in 3d mode, it's forced into 2D.

I'm not sure what information everyone needs, so please just ask and I'll post it up as soon as I can.

Re: Asus UX32A Zenbook 12.04 install somewhat successful gfx issues

I installed the PPA and updated.

First reboot hung at boot.

On reboot it wanted to go into recovery mode, recovery mode worked, but was in 2d, and the screen brightness functions still didn't work.

Rebooting through recovery mode, but once it's recovered doing the switch to full mode throws the warning that "Graphics drivers may need to be reloaded." it loaded into full mode, but was in 2d. I did have access to a list of drivers that are new though in the "Additional Drivers" icon.

Upon logging out, I went back to a black screen but had the sound that you get when you see the login screen. So it's not hanging, it's just not displaying.

Edit: Should report that since the first install that I manged to get booted in completely all function keys work as advertised except monitor brightness.

Sleep (f1) - works (but is unrecoverable after it shows a logout screen then the screen goes blank)
wifi (f2) - works
keyboard brightness up/down (f3/F4) - works
brightness (f5/f6) - no function at all
screen off (f7) - works, and turns the screen back on with the second push
monitor switch (f8) - untested
touchpad disable (f9) - works
sound up/down/mute (f10,f11,f12) - work

Re: Asus UX32A Zenbook 12.04 install somewhat successful gfx issues

I managed to get ubuntu to boot, on all the kernels present by changing the "nomodeset" command to "acpi_osi=windows"

This made the suspend function work flawlessly, it also allowed me to use 3D mode, and have the extra driver support. There's a couple of odds and ends to fix up.

The big problem that's pretty unacceptable though is that it won't boot on the first try.

You have to let it boot and fail, then when it reboots it will send you to the Grub menu, once in the menu, you HAVE to press "e" then f10 to boot. You don't need to change any parameters, you just have to A) enter the menu, and B) Enter the editor, then go ahead and boot.

Re: Asus UX32A Zenbook 12.04 install somewhat successful gfx issues

The best install I've managed to get so far is with the 32bit version of 12.04

Install, then run the updates as depicted above.

Everything works, except for the brightness keys, suspend does work perfectly.

The only problem is that after removing "nomodeset" from GRUB, it boots about once in ever 3 tries. the other two tries will hang in one of two places, right before the login screen displays, and right after, when it's only 1/2 loaded. There's login boxes, and the title bar, but the background is just purple with polkadots.

The computer is frozen. No movement or response from the mouse/trackpad, keyboard or anything. It must be hard rebooted.

Re: Asus UX32A Zenbook 12.04 install somewhat successful gfx issues

Currently trying some fixes against launchpad bug 1041883. Moderate success - still kernel panics until system warms up it appears. You can try the suggested kernel patches in the bug report and see if things improve. That would help with testing so that things are fixed for 12.10. One guy with a UX32VD is having no problems, the rest of us seem to continue to have the one boot in 3 works (on mine until things warm up).

Re: Asus UX32A Zenbook 12.04 install somewhat successful gfx issues

Outcome seems to be that a patched version of the kernel produced in the launchpad bug 1041883 properly sets video. But the kernel panics seem to arise from the btusb module having some sort of timing clash with the graphics mode switch. In any case, blacklisting btusb and then installing the module later in rc.local avoids the kernel panics that otherwise occur frequently booting 12.04. Hope that helps. Refer to the bug tracker for more information on what to do, and to get a 3.5.0-15 kernel build.